What is Jorge Paulo Lemann's Net Worth?
Jorge Paulo Lemann is a Brazilian billionaire investment banker and businessman who has a net worth of $20 billion. He is the richest person in Brazil and one of the 100 richest people in the world.
Jorge Paulo Lemann first built his fortune in the 1970s as a co-founder of Banco Garantia, which became one of the most prestigious investment banks in Brazil. Lemann later co-founded the private equity firm GP Investments, the brewing company Ambev, and the investment firm 3G Capital, which owns Burger King and Kraft Heinz, among other food companies.
Early Life and Education
Jorge Paulo Lemann was born on August 26, 1939 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Anna, a Brazilian of Swiss descent, and Paul, a Swiss immigrant who founded the dairy manufacturer Leco. Lemann was educated at the American School of Rio de Janeiro. When he was 14, his father was killed in a bus accident. Growing up, Lemann was an avid tennis player, and won the Brazilian national tennis championship five times. He also participated twice in the Davis Cup. For his higher education, Lemann attended Harvard University, from which he received his bachelor's degree in economics in 1960. He later revealed that he did not enjoy his time at Harvard, as he found Boston too cold compared to his native Brazil. A couple years after graduating, Lemann played at Wimbledon.
Career Beginnings
Lemann began his career as a trainee at Credit Suisse in Geneva, Switzerland from 1961 to 1962. He also acquired equity interest in a lending company called Invesco, which ended up going bankrupt in 1966. Lemann co-founded his first company, Banco Garantia, in 1971; his co-founders were Carlos Alberto Sicupira and Marcel Herrmann Telles. Despite a market crash that came just weeks after the company's founding, Lemann was eventually able to build Banco Garantia into one of the most prestigious investment banks in Brazil, described by Forbes as "a Brazilian version of Goldman Sachs." Banco Garantia was later sold to Credit Suisse First Boston in 1998.
GP Investments and 3G Capital
In 1993, Lemann co-founded the private equity firm GP Investments to invest in companies in Latin America. Since its founding, the firm has raised over $5 billion from investors worldwide and has invested in upwards of 50 companies across multiple different industries. In 2004, Lemann co-founded the global investment firm 3G Capital, which evolved from his and his business partners' Brazilian investment office. The firm has made several major acquisitions over the years, including Burger King in 2010, Heinz in 2013, and Kraft Foods in 2015. In partnership with Warren Buffett, 3G Capital merged Kraft with Heinz. The firm also created the fast food holding company Restaurant Brands International from a merger between Burger King and Tim Hortons. RBI later acquired Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and Firehouse Subs. Also in its portfolio is Hunter Douglas, which makes window blinds and coverings.
Jorge Paulo Lemann / Scott Olson/Getty Images
Ambev
With his business partners, Lemann acquired the Brazilian breweries Brahma and Antarctica in the late 1980s. In the late 1990s, the breweries were merged to create Ambev, which went on to dominate the beer markets in several South American countries, including Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Ambev merged with Belgium's Interbrew in the summer of 2004, creating the company InBev. In 2008, InBev acquired Anheuser-Busch to spawn Anheuser-Busch InBev, the largest brewer in the world. AB InBev went on to grow even bigger after its acquisition of the brewer SABMiller in 2016.
Other Endeavors
Among his many other business endeavors, Lemann serves as a director of the Brazilian office of Endeavor, a non-profit organization that supports entrepreneurs in emerging markets. He also sits on the board of the Brazilian retail chain Lojas Americanas, and serves as the chairman of the Latin American Advisory Committee of the New York Stock Exchange. Elsewhere, he founded Fundação Estudar, which gives scholarships to Brazilian students.
Personal Life
Lemann married his first wife, Maria Quental, in 1966. They had three children together before divorcing in 1986. In 1999, a group of gunmen tried to kidnap Lemann's children on their way to school, causing him to relocate to Switzerland. He married his second wife, Susanna Mally, in 2005; they have three children. Lemann typically splits his time between São Paulo, Rapperswil-Jona in Switzerland, and St. Louis. A deeply private person, he seldom gives interviews or appears in public.
